The Big 12 is the Big Time
October 31, 2014 09:46 AM | General
TCU … ESPN GameDay … national rankings … top 10 football teams … packed stadiums … meaningful games ... these are some of the really good reasons why West Virginia was so eager to join the Big 12 Conference back in 2012.
A lot of those things were what football coach Jim Carlen envisioned more than 45 years ago when he told athletic director Red Brown that West Virginia University and its fans deserved much better than what they were getting out of the Southern Conference.
It’s what we thought we were getting when the Big East football conference (minus Penn State, unfortunately) was formed in the early 1990s. At its inception, the Big East was a pretty good football league for about 10 years until Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College packed up and left.
Yet even when the Big East was doing well; actually, when Miami, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Syracuse, Boston College and Pitt were all doing well, it still pales in comparison to what the Big 12 offers in terms of fan support and pure football passion.
I’ve been to all of the schools in the Big 12 (in some instances more than once now) and the second time around I really wanted to soak in some of the atmospheres at these places.
I had heard so much about homecoming at Oklahoma State so last Saturday I sat atop the press box at Boone Pickens Stadium to take in the Cowboy pregame show and team entrance.
Believe me, it was impressive - as good as anything you will see anywhere.
From the students banging their paddles on the side of the stadium wall to the Cowboy mascot shooting off his pistol as he entered the field while riding on an ATV to the coal-black horse galloping across the field right before the team entrance … all of this made the hair stand up on the back of your neck.
If that doesn’t get you stoked for a college football game then you need to have your pulse checked.
And guess what, it was the same deal at Texas Tech when the Red Raider galloped out on his black horse, or at Texas when 100,000 people jumped up and down to House of Pain’s Jump Around, literally shaking the stadium off its foundation.
Or at Kansas State when the Wildcat tackled that unfortunate K-State student who was dressed up as the West Virginia Mountaineer right before kickoff of last year’s game. For those of you there, you may recall the paramedics coming out on the field to render assistance to the poor kid who got knocked into next week by Kansas State’s overly aggressive mascot.
The cheering stopped momentarily until it was clear that the kid was going to be OK, and then another thunderous ovation took place when he was carted off the field.
At Iowa State and Baylor, they are just as passionate. Even at Kansas, where the Jayhawks have been down now for a couple of seasons, you can tell the fans there are eager to get things turned around and want to come back and support KU football once again when it happens.
And everybody knows what football games are like in Norman, Oklahoma – that goes without saying.
These guys don’t just play football; they live it for five months straight.
When you go in and win at these places there is a legitimate sense of accomplishment, no matter how well or how poorly the other team is playing. In the league West Virginia used to play in you only got that sensation at a couple of places.
At the other places, the atmospheres were very underwhelming, to put it politely. For instance:
- The tarp covering the entire upper deck at this stadium, and the school actually putting a note in its football game release about having a bigger student section than WVU.
Really?
- Those three dudes dressed up in Revolutionary War attire shooting off the cannon up on the side of the hill at another place, and the cannon rarely going off because their team could just never seem to score any touchdowns.
- Walking into this stadium to work a football game and seeing the facility adorned in basketball stuff - a clear reminder to everyone there that the real season (college basketball) was right around the corner.
- Going to games at this venue and wondering how much the attendance was going to be padded that day – by 10,000 or 20,000?
- Sitting at this completely empty pro stadium and seeing the ticket manager standing outside the press box counting the number of people in the stands for the game attendance.
- Watching year-round TV advertisements from this particular school begging people to come to their home games by literally giving away tickets – and no one showing up year after year.
Occasionally, I also think back to 2007 when West Virginia was on the cusp of reaching the BCS national championship game. Of course the Mountaineers didn’t get there - something that will stick with those players and coaches for as long as they live - but what really struck me was what took place before the game, not so much the game itself.
This was a chance for the conference to get back some of its mojo following the departures of some key members - an opportunity to make a strong case for becoming a major player in college football (and college sports) once again.
Everyone from the league was in Morgantown, along with a horde of the most prominent northeastern journalists from some of the biggest media outlets in the country.
They were in Morgantown, West Virginia to see one of the most important games in college football that season and yet most of them were huddled around the press box wall display of television sets watching, of all things, Thanksgiving tournament college basketball!
I couldn’t believe my eyes.
Even some of the league staffers had their basketball notes out to follow all of those meaningless hoop games that were going on that day and treating one of the biggest football games in its history like it was a distraction.
I realized then what West Virginia University was up against, and today it serves as a constant reminder to me of why the Big 12 is such a great conference for WVU.
Forget about the distance and forget about the geography.
These other schools in the Big 12 are just like the Mountaineers - passionate sports fans that love football during football season and then love basketball during basketball season.
Oh, and by the way, all of those TV sets in the press box at Milan Puskar Stadium will be showing college football games on Saturday. That you can count on.
Enjoy Saturday’s game!
NCAA Selection Show
Wednesday, May 13
WVU Baseball Defensive Highlights
Tuesday, May 12
Kansas Recap
Tuesday, May 12
Kansas State Recap
Tuesday, May 12
